I love the old Dick Francis books. He centers his mysteries around some sort of horse racing theme in England, probably because Dick Francis is an ex-jockey turned author. What Dick Francis does well is describe injuries, the pain, the aches, the hard to stand or sit down. It’s not like in the movies where Bruce Willis jumps out of a car and lands on pavement tearing himself up, gets patched up by the hospital and a few hours later removes the sling and performs impossible physical action. Dick Francis characters do try and ignore the pain but he also has them hobble about with a walker or have to get a ride as they can no longer drive a car with a broken foot. I guess growing up with a father who became crippled and suffered through a lot of the same rehabilitation trails and tribulation as described it makes the book feel more real. In this book Come to Grief we have Sid Halley, ex-jockey who turned detective after a bad fall in which a horse landed on his hand rendering it useless. Sid has to find who has been cutting off the hoofs of horses. We get a glimpse into the life of one who has to cope with a prosthetic hand, learn of his nightmares from his own accident as horse after horse loses his limb, a feeling that Sid can easily relate to.